The Real Phantom of the Opera
by anya-scriptus
Summary: Alicia Julian gets the role of Christine in her choir's version of Phantom of the Opera, and her best friend Johnathon Smith gets the role of the Phantom. But what shocking truth will Alicia find out about her best friend in the course of making the produ
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

_Robert's POV_

_February 2053_

I never thought the city would really close down the Mirabel Theatre. In Vulcan, Virginia, the theatre is really the only thing of culture besides the Vulcan Youth Choir, which I was in when I was much younger. Now, I'm arthritic, aged, and decrepit, and I'm at the Mirabel bidding for things that once had great value.

The auctioneer already sold a poster for "Annie" and three human skulls from the 2010 production of "Macbeth" by Shakespeare. Now a papier-mâché musical box, in the shape of an octagon, was for sale. Attached was the figure of a ballerina in a pink tutu _en pointe_. This item was discovered in the vaults of the theatre, still in working order. The porter set it in motion, and a familiar tune played, making me think of the woman whom I loved. Suddenly, I wanted that box more than anything. The auctioneer said, "May I start at 20 dollars? 15, then? 15 I am bid." Then I bid 20 dollars.

Suddenly, as if out of the once-gilded woodwork, Mrs. Lamech, a woman whom I knew and who must have been 120 years old, appeared and bid 25 dollars. I countered with 30 dollars. That she couldn't top, so I got the music box. "Sold, for thirty dollars to Mr. Laurence. Thank you, sir," said the auctioneer, and the box is handed to me. I look at the box, trying to connect to my love. I started to sing to the box:  
_A collector's piece indeed . . .  
every detail exactly as she said . . .  
Will you still play,  
when all the rest of us are dead?  
_

The auctioneer started to talk again. "Lot 666, then: a chandelier in pieces. Some of you may recall the strange affair of the Phantom of the Opera: a mystery never fully explained. We are told ladies and gentlemen, that this is the very chandelier which figures in the famous disaster. Our workshops have restored it and fitted up parts of it with wiring for the new electric light, so that we may get a hint of what it may look like when re-assembled. Perhaps we may frighten away the ghost of so many years ago with a little illumination. Gentlemen?"

The auctioneer switched on the chandelier. There was an enormous flash, and the theatre was restored to its earlier grandeur, at least in my mind. The chandelier immense and glittering, rose magically from the stage, finally hovering high above the ceiling. My mind started to drift back about 47 years, when Alicia was still in my arms, and the Mirabel was still in good repair...


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

_Alicia's POV_

_September 2006_

"Alicia! Kathryn! Time to get ready for choir!" yelled Mom. I groaned, because it took my sister forever to primp for choir in the hopes that one of the cute guys would look her way. In short, my sister made both of us late every single bleeding Monday that we had choir. "Kath, don't take so long to get ready this time!" I reproved sternly. Even though we were twins, and I was the younger of the both of us, I usually took charge and became the big sister. This was even more so after Daddy died.

When I was five, Daddy disappeared. I felt as if my world had died, and I was inconsolable. Two years later, though, Daddy appeared at my family's doorstep. He was emaciated beyond belief, he hadn't slept in two days, and he had pneumonia. I got him in the house and onto my bed. Soon after he'd lain down, he had trouble breathing. Mom started to call the hospital, but I told her, "He'll die before he gets to the hospital, Mommy. Let him die in peace." She wasn't happy that I was making decisions instead of she, but she realized that I was right. She hung up the phone, and I went into my room to be near Daddy.

When he saw me come in, he motioned for me to sit next to the bed. I did so, and he said in his usual gravelly voice, "Lise, when I get to Heaven, I'll send you the Angel of Music." "Daddy," I said tearfully, "You're not gonna die. You're gonna die an old man, surrounded by all of us-" He said, "Alicia, listen to me. _L'Ange de l'Musique_ is closer to you than you think. He will come when you least expect him. In fact, you know him right now, yet you don't know it. He has gone out of your life, but will come back very soon." He then passed from my loving arms into the even more loving arms of Jesus, and my life was shattered once again.

Now I sang to honor Daddy, for I was Daddy's little girl. I had waited for eight years, and no angel had come to me. I know that I should believe, since I watched Phantom of the Opera on a regular basis, but it was hard when I didn't have some supernatural being visiting me at all. I didn't want to believe it, but I was starting to think that Daddy was either delusional from all the pain or he was lying to me. I couldn't possibly believe the latter, so I had to believe the former thought. Now Miss Kara, our choir director, had planned something big. Well, that's what she told all the kids. With Miss Kara, it could be anything, even just a new piece that she'd composed. She was just kinda crazy like that.

Amazingly, Kath got ready in 15 minutes, so we were on track to be early to choir. Kath, Mom, and I all got into the family multi-colored van that we'd bought from a family friend 10 years ago. The old thing made banging noises, needed a new transmission every other year, and was just plain yucky-looking, but it got us from Point A to Point B, so Mom wasn't going to give it up. Plus, no one would ever buy it, given its' history. Mom started up the car, and we started to the other side of town.

_10 minutes later_

Kath and I sat down in our usual seats. Well, Kath had to move to the tenor section, because her voice had dramatically changed. _How ironic,_ I thought, _that I sing higher than anyone in the family, where once I had despaired of ever singing Soprano I ever again after 7th grade._ Just then, Bevin Kalonice, one of my fellow altos, came in. Bevin was beautiful, even though she had lost a lot of weight due to being very sick last semester. She had a holy beauty; she absolutely shone with the radiance of a seraph. "Hi, Alicia," smiled Bevin. "Hey, Bevin. What's up?" I replied. "Ah, just the usual stuff: sleeping, watching the boob tube, etc," she told me.

Suddenly, I saw two people come in the room whom I thought I would never see grace the choir room again: Robert Laurence and, even more cause for joy, Johnathon Smith. Both had been in the choir last winter, but I'd fallen in love with Johnathon's soft hazel eyes, his kind smile, and his slightly muscular build last winter. I couldn't wait to reconnect with him this year.

_Robert's POV_

I looked down to see who was in the room (I'm fairly tall, about 6'1"), and I couldn't believe my eyes. I saw Alicia Julian, a girl who I'd known in the choir last winter. She had grown up quite a bit since I'd last seen her, though. Her short, stocky 4'9" build had grown to a lanky 5'; she actually had some feminine curves now instead of just fatness, and her semi-long and wavy brown hair was now almost to the small of her back and was very curly. She was also wearing makeup, which I'd never seen her wear. The goddess that Alicia had become looked up at me, smiled a coy smile, and said in her familiar somewhat throaty voice, "Hi, Rob."

I replied, 'Hey, Alicia. Looks like you changed since I last saw you." "Yeah," she said, "It was a really tough summer getting used to my new body." I stared into her dark brown eyes, those eyes that had fascinated me, haunted me for a year since I last saw her. Even when she was smiling at someone, she seemed so sad and helpless, because her eyes seemed like pools of despair.

She probably had that look on account of her dad had abandoned the family when she and her sister were five, and her little brother was an infant. The rest of her family just picked up the pieces of their broken hearts and moved on with their lives, but Alicia was completely and irrevocably heartbroken. She'd been Daddy's little girl, and she either didn't or couldn't understand why Daddy would leave "Mama, Kath, Timmy, an' me" to fend for themselves. They did find him a couple of years later, but he was, ironically, in a grave. This shattered all Alicia's hopes of a "normal" family, and she was never the same. She just lost herself in song and dance.

She had a beautiful alto voice from what I remembered, and her ballet dancing was beyond compare, save for Rachael Lamech. Rachael was a second soprano in the Vulcan choir, and she was well on her way to becoming a _prima ballerina_. Just then, Miss Kara, the only woman I would truly detest in my lifetime, came into the room. "All right, everybody. Get to your seats," she said in that annoying little head voice that she sometimes did. I sometimes wondered if she talked in that sing-song voice just for the express purpose of annoying everyone in the room. "Okay, everyone, I need to talk to you," she said.

"This year, we won't have any concerts," she told us. At that, most of the kids started to cheer. "Don't start cheering yet," she warned. "The reason we're not having any concerts is because we are going to perform a musical this year." Every person in the room started whispering, surprised that Miss Kara would be so adventurous as to try something like that. "What kind of musical are we doing?" asked Grace Lamech, Rachael's little sister. Grace and Rachael looked a lot alike, except Grace's features were more slender, even the nose. Also, Rachael's hair was longer than Grace's, and Grace only came up to Rachael's chest.

"We're doing Phantom of the Opera," said Miss Kara. Then some of the kids got looks like a child who has just been told he or she can buy candy, but some looked like a nobleman who was told he had to talk to peasants. To the kids who looked disgusted, Alicia said, "Aw, come on guys. It'll be fun to put on a famous musical. Besides, if we put the musical on, all the big cities will look at Vulcan and say, "Now there's a town that has high culture."

Strangely, though, Johnathon didn't have anything to say on the subject. If the subject was on culture, he usually had something to say, since he'd been surrounded by high culture since before he was born on account of his parents were rich and could afford anything of high culture. His usually soft, smiling hazel eyes were hard and devoid of any light, and his whole body became rigid and fixed. Miss Kara continued with her announcement, "You may audition after rehearsal tonight, or if you want time to prepare, you can audition after rehearsal next Monday. I will pass out the music to everyone who wants it, and if you don't want to audition for a specific part, you will sing in the opera chorus." Kathryn raised her hand and said, "What if you're someone in my position?" It was then that I noticed that Kathryn was in the tenor section. Miss Kara elucidated, "I will automatically make you one of the 'males' in the opera chorus. Lord knows we need strong tenors in there."

Miss Kara then passed out the music. Before Miss Kara got to the basses, Grace leaned over to Johnathon and whispered something in his ear. He got a funny look on his face, then relaxed. When Miss Kara got to the basses, Johnathon took a copy of the Phantom's songs, gave Grace a "we'll talk about this later" look, and started looking at the music. When she got to the altos, Alicia, surprisingly, took a copy of Christine's songs. "You sure you can sing those songs, kiddo?" asked Lauren Morgan, one of the other altos. "You worry about yourself, Lauren; I'll worry about me," Alicia said with an icy tone that chilled the whole room.

After all the music had been passed out, Miss Kara said, "Rehearsal is over; you may leave if you want. Remember, you can audition tonight." Everyone left the room except for Alicia, who got out her music. As I walked out the door, I saw Johnathon sitting outside the room, listening to Alicia sing her part of "Phantom of the Opera."

_Johnathon's POV_

"I still cannot fathom why you're talking me into even auditioning for this role, Grace," I moaned, wishing that the girl who sat on the edge of my bed would just leave me in peace about the role. I tried to not pay attention to her, but the fact that she was wearing a low-cut, short, and deep red dress did not exactly help matters. She put her head on my chest and said, "Er-Johnathon, just audition for the role. This is practically your life's story." At that, I gave her an evil look. _How dare she say something like that?_ I angrily thought. "Ooo-kay, bad choice of words," she said when she saw the look on my face. "Well, Alicia would love it if you were the Phantom. She adores you; I can see it in her eyes. Besides, I know you secretly want to be her lover." "What would you know of love?" I snapped, angry and frightened that she could see right through me.

_Grace's POV_

I looked at Johnathon, intent on seeing if I'd broken through his clever, glittering façade like I usually could. His eyes seemed a little terrified. I smirked to myself, knowing that I'd probably won the battle. I came to win the test of mental endurance that usually was put before me whenever I went to see Johnathon. That was why I wore the red dress; Johnathon liked to see women in sexy outfits. Women, however, didn't comprise of most of his companionships, so, when he saw a woman (or an eighth-grader girl, in my case) in sexy clothes, his testosterone went haywire. I, however, was unprepared for what came next.

Johnathon sharply turned around, and for one terrifying moment, I thought he was going to hit me. Instead, he pressed my back against his muscular chest with his right hand and his left hand ran up and down my thigh. "This is what love is," he growled. He pressed me so hard against his chest that I thought my ribs would crack. Meanwhile, his left hand made something pleasurable come alive in me. I didn't know what it was, but it excited and terrified me at the same time. Then he let me go, and said, "Fine. I will audition for the role." Just then, I heard Mom calling me. "I need to go, John," I told him. He simply said, "Good night, Gracie."

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**A/N:** Mrs. Lamech _is_ Grace, for those people who might be confused, and yes, she is married. I'll explain that in later chapters.


End file.
